Modus Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 It sounds like a cluster cuss no matter how much I EQ or pan or take away reverb. I'm stumped and I want help. I want help through Skype or something. How do people make things sound so crisp in FL? Howwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww-- Here's an example: http://soundcloud.com/modusmusic/work-in-progress-jeanne-darc-title-theme-remix It's all bleh and splurshy. Please help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moseph Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 Try transposing some stuff up an octave. The mix itself doesn't sound bad to me, but a lot of your instruments are really in the same midrange areas of the frequency spectrum. The bass synth is kind of blah -- it lacks punch and tends to get lost among the other instruments, especially after 1:22. I think you should maybe replace it with something that has a less complex waveform and/or sounds more like a bass guitar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rozovian Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 Cool retro sound. What have you done with eq? Cutting lows from tracks that don't need them is a way to clear up the lows, and deciding a specific frequency range for each instrument and cutting that from the others tends to clean up clutter in shared ranges. While Moseph's solution is valid, I'd hate to have to start transposing stuff in something I've already written. I don't see why you couldn't clean this up further with EQ. Then again, my stuff tends not to be superdry, superclear stuff anyway. Also, consider pushing some of the instruments further back, like that 0:24 effect sound and possibly the pads (with reverb, volume, stereo width and eq). Cutting highs from tracks further back gets you more room in the highs to bring out the leads and other foreground elements. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Modus Posted January 19, 2011 Author Share Posted January 19, 2011 I just kept earballing the EQ and ended with highs and mid-highs boosted on like every single instrument. The way you describe helps me visualize how to give everything its own space though. And I almost never cut out lows so that's probably something to think about. As for changing octaves, I actually did already do some of that in this version. The piano is layered with two octaves instead of just the low octave I had before and the bells were upped too. If I get desperate I might try to spread the octaves out even more though. Also, Moseph, I did replace the bass with something punchier, more staccato, and less drowned in reverb a while ago so I guess I can take a little comfort in knowing that I can recognize the problems... even if I dunno how to fix 'em yet. In any case, I drastically changed the direction of the song after djpretzel's feedback so I'll be back in like... a year with the next version and we'll talk about the EQ more then Thanks for the advice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SonicThHedgog Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 It sounds like a cluster cuss no matter how much I EQ or pan or take away reverb. I'm stumped and I want help. I want help through Skype or something. How do people make things sound so crisp in FL? Howwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww--Here's an example: http://soundcloud.com/modusmusic/work-in-progress-jeanne-darc-title-theme-remix It's all bleh and splurshy. Please help. If your sound card is not an audio interface ment for audio/music producuing editing with shitty A/D converters, your music will ALL WAYS sound muddy, so go buy a proper interface.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SenPi Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 If your sound card is not an audio interface ment for audio/music producuing editing with shitty A/D converters, your music will ALL WAYS sound muddy, so go buy a proper interface.... NO!! JUST NO! UGH!!! I know lots of people with shitty as hell sound systems, but can still mix and master like a champ because they understand their setup and how the sound comes out of their speakers/etc. You need to know how your setup colors sound, and how to mix/master properly. Take the advice of the other guys as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rozovian Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 Well, unless your soundcard/listening equipment is actually terrible, it shouldn't be a big deal unless you really need to mix it pro. Even with terrible listening equipment/soundcard, learning how pro mixed stuff sounds on that setup - and how it looks in the plethora of analyzers (spectrum, stereo correlation, peak/rms levels...) - should get you around that. You could further improve your mix by making sure you have roughly the same frequency balance as pro mixed stuff - not having enough highs make it a lot less clear. If some EQ boosts/cuts on the master clears it up a lot, you're probably not EQing your tracks right. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Modus Posted January 19, 2011 Author Share Posted January 19, 2011 I'm using onboard sound :/ Is a soundcard really necessary because I can't even add one due to my GPUs blocking all my PCI and PCIe slots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anti-Syne Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 Is a soundcard really necessary Nope, definately not necessary at all (well not an external one), not sure why that was suggested in the first place. Just listen to what the others have been saying about EQing and giving each instrument a specific place in the mix Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dfast Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 What everyone else has said already + my 0,5 cents on the matter: Starter sounds. I can never put enough emphasis on the (my personal) fact that good starter sounds take you to places. Turning a pile of donkey into a flourishing unicorn is next to impossible, no matter how you want to twist it. In this case I feel that the drum samples are on the dull side here and should have some more ingredient in them. Also it's never a simple thing to pull out a decent mix when you're on a stereo crusade: try to keep the lowest bass frequencies mono'ed. A nice free plugin for such action is e.g. Tone Project's Basslane (Windows only). Other than that I don't hear anything THAT wrong in your mix. Slightly over-exaggarating the outcome, no? For some additional "crystal" in the sounds I usually go with an EQ of my choice (and that choice is GlissEQ, commercial though) with a wide Q value -> boost at 11kHz, +2db or so. Then I do a slight cut at 8kHz with a narrow Q value, -2db or so. I usually do this when mastering, but it does work on separate tracks/instruments as well (well, it works when it works, usually yes). If you simply just add more reverb and try to make things eerie in the search of dreamyness, chances are you're just turning it all for the worse. I tend to highpass all reverb signals somewhere around 200hz at least, just for safety. About mud then: Check around 300-350Hz and 600-680Hz for anything that might turn a sound muddier. Just boost around those freqs and see what happens. I usually go through the entire frequency table with a sharp boost and when I find something that really annoys and irritates me, I make a little cut (-2db is usually more than plenty with a relatively low Q value) and naturally if your source material has some real harshness in its initial freqs, adjust the amount of cutting accordingly. Liking the remix so far btw. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Esker Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 I am very satisfied on how it sounds till now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Modus Posted January 19, 2011 Author Share Posted January 19, 2011 dfast, I'm glad I'm to the point where I understand what you're telling me to do, but I'm not sure how to go about it all. I'm a determined guy and will figure it out though. Thanks for being so specific. I'm starting to feel kind of itchy that I changed the mood and genre of the WIP now that I see you guys kind of like it. I think I'm gonna try reverting a bit but I'll still replace the drums. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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